Advocacy-Matters-Winter-2024

THE BALANCED BREAK:
THE INSIGHTS BALANCED FOR BUILDING BREAK: INSIGHTS A MEANINGFUL FOR A WELL-LIVED LIFE LIFE
The Happy Lawyer Project
Lisa Marie Buccella, Aviva Trial Lawyers
Get a Life – Outside of Work
[H]obbies that oblige you to
concentrate are very healthy.
- Darryl Cruz
Mid-career lawyers are often pulled in many
directions: growing a career, raising a family,
maintaining a household, and potentially caring
for aging parents. Personal pursuits get pushed
to the back burner or saved for retirement.
Given their significant benefit to our wellbeing
and happiness, it’s short-sighted to delay or ignore
our hobbies and passions until we can find
more time. Time is never ‘found’; it’s made.
While hobbies are often viewed as activities
separate from work, they are better understood
as a form of cross-training: they serve as
a respite from lawyering while simultaneously
strengthening the muscles that make us better
lawyers. Darryl Cruz, a partner at McCarthy
Tétrault LLP in the Toronto Litigation Group,
says: “Motorcycling and chess have a commonality
in that they require a great deal of concentration.
I feel that hobbies that oblige you to
concentrate are very healthy. They give you an
opportunity to focus and to work on getting into
a zone that clears all other thoughts.”
“Boating is a bit different,” he adds. “When you
are on the water, you are separating yourself
from the regular world.”
Our profession is rife with dissatisfaction and
burnout, so if you’re waiting for retirement to
pursue your passions – reconsider. Recreational
pursuits are enriching, generally linked to better
physical and mental well-being and can help
build a sense of identity outside of work. Ongoing
investment in one’s self provides considerable
short and long-term returns, and is the
foundation for a thriving career and a meaningful
life. What do you have on your ‘one day’ list
that can move to your ‘today’ list?
6
7